


Heart of a Paladin

by bobbiewickham



Series: Barricade Day Ficlets [4]
Category: Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:42:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23271919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bobbiewickham/pseuds/bobbiewickham
Summary: Courfeyrac, as a child, has a brief and illustrative encounter. Written for Barricade Day 2017, fulfilling a request for a Courfeyrac ficlet.
Series: Barricade Day Ficlets [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1677256
Comments: 6
Kudos: 9





	Heart of a Paladin

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Oilan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oilan/gifts).



Alexandre de Courfeyrac was truant, again.

This time he was hiding in the closet by the servants’ entrance into the kitchen. His tutor had never found him there before. Neither had the nurse who looked after his younger brother and sister. Unlike the closet straight across the hall, it was not full of smelly mops and brooms. No, this closet had jars of cinnamon and sugar and lavender, and smelled a little like the fields of the family home in Provence. It was a very agreeable place to hide from M. Niel the tutor and his Greek and Latin texts. It was unfair, anyway, that he had to learn Greek and Latin. Alexandre was ten. He was a big boy and should be able to do what he wanted. 

He pulled his little novel out of his pocket. He’d bought it with his pocket money while his tutor wasn’t looking. It was very exciting and he was right in the middle of the part where Jean-Pierre de Léon had tracked down the evil Count and challenged him to a duel. Alexandre felt he was being as brave and clever as Jean-Pierre, escaping his tutor so handily and finding this place to hide. 

The light through the crack between the door and the wall was just barely enough to read. He should have thought to bring a candle. Next time, he vowed, though he would have to be careful not to set anything on fire.

“We have no work for you here, my good woman.” That was Marthe the housemaid, plainly speaking to someone standing at the servants’ entrance. Alexandre could tell because her voice sounded like the geese squawking near the Seine. A softer voice responded—Alexandre couldn’t quite make out what it said. It belonged to a woman, and sounded urgent, but it was too low to hear through the door. “No, I’m sorry—Fantine? That’s your name, isn’t it? You disappeared for—how long was it—two years? More? We have a new seamstress now, and Mme de Courfeyrac likes her very much, she does all the mending very well.”

The woman—Fantine—spoke again, and her voice sounded shaky, like she was going to cry. Alexandre frowned. He didn’t like it when people made girls cry. He pushed the door open a crack, and peeped out. He could see past the housemaid to where Fantine stood, at the entrance. She had big blue eyes, and looked very sad. 

But Marthe shook her head, and closed the door in Fantine’s face. 

Alexandre burst out. “Call her back,” he said, urgently. “Maybe we can help her—she seemed so sad–”

“M. de Courfeyrac!” His tutor’s voice echoed through the kitchen, as loud as his thomping footsteps. Before Alexandre could run, M. Niel had seized him roughly by the arm. “Young man, you will come with me.”

“But–” Alexandre protested, dragging his feet. “No, I have to stay here, we have to call her back–”

“None of your back-chat. You will walk or I will carry you like a baby, whichever you prefer. You are getting to be grown up, you can’t pull these boyish pranks, you must apply yourself to your studies–”

“When I’m grown up, I won’t waste my time on Greek and Latin,” Alexandre said, indignantly. “I’ll have much better things to do.”

“Like this?” M. Niel deftly extracted the novel from Alexandre’s hand. “What trash you read.”

“Yes, like that! I’ll be just like Jean-Pierre, you’ll see.”

M. Niel smiled, infuriatingly. “For now you will be just like a good pupil, and sit down with your Latin and Greek.”

Alexandre scowled, and dragged his feet a little harder.


End file.
